Geography

The Congo, in west-central Africa, is bordered
by the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, the Sudan, Uganda,
Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is
one-quarter the size of the U.S. The principal rivers are the Ubangi and
Bomu in the north and the Congo in the west, which flows into the
Atlantic. The entire length of Lake Tanganyika lies along the eastern
border with Tanzania and Burundi.

Government

Transitional government.

History

Formerly the Belgian Congo, this territory was
inhabited by ancient Negrito peoples (Pygmies), who were pushed into the
mountains by Bantu and Nilotic invaders. The American correspondent Henry
M. Stanley navigated the Congo River in 1877 and opened the interior to
exploration. Commissioned by King Leopold II of the Belgians, Stanley made
treaties with native chiefs that enabled the king to obtain personal title
to the territory at the Berlin Conference of 1885.

Leopold accumulated a vast personal fortune from
ivory and rubber through Congolese slave labor; 10 million people are
estimated to have died from forced labor, starvation, and outright
extermination during Leopold's colonial rule. His brutal exploitation of
the Congo eventually became an international cause célèbre,
prompting Belgium to take over administration of the Congo, which remained
a colony until agitation for independence forced Brussels to grant freedom
on June 30, 1960. In elections that month, two prominent nationalists won:
Patrice Lumumba of the leftist Mouvement National Congolais became prime
minister and Joseph Kasavubu of the ABAKO Party became head of state.

But within weeks of independence, the Katanga Province, led by Moise
Tshombe, seceded from the new republic, and another mining province, South
Kasai, followed. Belgium sent paratroopers to quell the civil war, and the
United Nations flew in a peacekeeping force.